Hey! This story won't be OOC, because I simply loathe those. Oh, and this takes place during Harry's third year, during the Prisoner of Azkaban. One more thing, just pretend that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and a few others stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas that year. That's all. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or anything of the like.
Hermione Granger and the Jinxed Mistletoe
"And I wish you all a very happy Christmas and may you all have a delightful night's rest!" Dumbledore exclaimed merrily from the head of the table in the Great Hall. There was only a single, long banquet table in the Great Hall that day; it was because of the few sparse persons present. Only a handful of students chose to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas and even with the teachers included, there were only a few dozen people, who were all easily seated at the immense Banquet table.
The Great Hall was decorated the more spectacular than it had been in decades.
The starry ceiling was charmed to appear as clear as a true winter's night, making millions of enchanted stars glitter marvelously. Pointed icicles hung from the edges of the roof sparkled with an intense delight. The room's temperature was cool and crisp, but not uncomfortably cold.
The room had an exotic, wintery blue glow to it and wreaths were tastefully hung at every wall. The House banners had frost lining the edges, and the effect was more dramatic than expected. However, the effect that was the most festive and appealing was the enchanted snowflakes falling from the ceiling. Dainty, petite snowflakes swirled and twirled through the air and disappeared just before grazing the surface of an object. The result was a very stunning atmosphere; even the eternally sour Slytherins begrudgingly admitted it.
With their bellies full from the divine Christmas feast, the few students who stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas stood up from their table, and with a dull murmuring between the young witches and wizards, they slowly left for their respective House dormitories.
Three students were left at the table; most of the professors had bid the others a goodnight and a happy Christmas and had exited along with the majority of the students.
One student at the table with unmistakable red hair was extremely busy with the arduous task of shoving as many scraps of desert as he could into his mouth before the house elves came to take the platters away.
Next to the redhead was a bushy haired girl, who was telling him off. On the redhead's other side was a boy with very dark hair, glasses, and striking green eyes, who looked like he was lost in thought. The most distinguishing feature of the ebony haired boy was a curiously shaped scar on his forehead, which the boy tried futilely to conceal; The scar was in the exact likeness of a lightning bolt.
"Will you stop eating, Ron? Not only is that unhealthy, but we've still got that Charms essay that is due the moment that the term starts, and you haven't even started it! We need to get back to the common room and at least work on it. I plan on finishing it tonight, and I still have a whole ten inches to go!" The curly haired brunette ranted to the redheaded boy, who was only half listening.
The girl paused in the middle of her mildly amused tirade and glanced at the dark headed boy's faraway countenance.
"Harry?" The girl said. "What's wrong?" She glanced around and saw that the rest of the Great Hall was deserted. "Is your scar bothering you again?" She said in worried, hushed tones.
"No, Hermione." Harry said in a toneless voice, as if he heard that question many times a day. "I'm fine."
Hermione pursed her lips, knowing that he was lying, but debating on whether she should drive the truth out of him.
"Ron." Hermione said to the redhead. "Come on. We all should get some rest." Hermione gave Ron a hard look. He cringed at her cold stare.
"Oh alright." Ron sighed. He stood up, and glanced over at Harry.
"You alright, Harry?" Ron asked as they exited the Great Hall.
"I'm fine." Harry said; his voice a bit more strained. Ron and Hermione shot worried looks at each other as they fell a step or two behind Harry. Their footsteps echoed through the vast Hall.
They steadily made their way to the Gryffindor common room, not uttering a word. The Hallways were lit by the low, flickering lights of the torches, and the various paintings and their inhabitants were dozing off.
Suddenly, Hermione's ever-present bag of thick leather bound books tore, it's ripping creating an almost deafening noise in the soundless corridor. Hermione mumbled angrily as she stooped down and collected her texts.
"You guys go on to the common room. I'll catch up in a minute." Hermione said tiredly. She tried various ways to carry her multitude of ancient novels, but there were many books scattered through the hall.
Ron nodded tersely. He and Harry came to two scarlet double doors with a low, stooping archway. It was a shortcut to the common room; if they just went through the doors, there would be another corridor, then they would take a left and ascend a short staircase; then they would find themselves at the Fat Lady's portrait.
Harry put his hand on the polished brass doorknob and opened it. Ron followed him into the corridor and the door slammed shut behind them with an echoing bang.
The corridor was lined with Roman style pillars standing resolutely near the walls. The lighting was dimmer than it was in most of the corridors, but like the other hallways, it was decorated for Christmas. Large red velvet bows were tied to each pillar and green garlands hung like festive sashes from the ceiling.
They turned a corner and stumbled upon a normal but loathsome sight; Malfoy was terrorizing Neville.
Neville was suspended by magic in the air, his mouth opened in a silent wail. His mouth was moving, but no sound rang from his mouth. He obviously had a muffalito charm cast on him. Neville's trousers were also around his ankles, causing the poor boy's round face to be crimson with embarrassment.
Malfoy's angled face had a disfiguring sneer on it.
"You really are a pathetic excuse for a wizard, Longbottom. You must be a Squib. Your ridiculous parents would die of shame if they saw that their son was a pathetic loser; you better be careful, Longbottom, or you'll end up just like them!" Malfoy spat malevolently.
Ron looked like he had just received a late Christmas present; he simply loathed Malfoy and longed for an excuse to hex him into next week. Harry looked like he'd rather be doing Potions detention with Snape than having to endure a confrontation with Malfoy, but narrowed his eyes at the sight of him.
"You're one to talk about, pathetic losers, Malfoy. You're the joke of the Slytherin Quidditch team. You couldn't catch a Snitch if it was lying on the grass, wingless." Ron scoffed. "The only reason that a talentless git like you got on the team is because your slimeball father bought it for you."
Harry and Ron had their wands drawn and aimed at Malfoy's pale form.
Malfoy's face flushed, and his sneer contorted into a snarl.
"You of all people would now about pathetic disgraces. Your family is the biggest disgrace to wizardry that the world has ever seen! With your fat, ignorant old mother of yours and your nuisance, blood traitor, dirt poor father, you aren't even good enough to scrape the filth off the shoes of a real wizard, like my father or myself." Malfoy hissed.
Ron's smirk vanished and his face became as red as his hair. Harry wasn't in the mood to banter with Malfoy, and was on the verge of cursing him senseless, when Malfoy seemed to read his mind.
"You won't need those." Malfoy said, gesturing vaguely to Harry and Ron's wands. Before they could flinch, they were attacked from either side. A disarming spell was shot from both sides in synch and their wands flew out of their hands. They were forced backwards by the spell, causing their heads to knock into each other. Harry's vision went fuzzy and Ron was knocked into unconsciousness by the violent force of the collision.
Harry groped for his wand, but couldn't distinguish what he was seeing in the blurriness of everything.
With a few spells from Draco's wand, a silencing charm was cast on both Ron and Harry and they were suspended into the air alongside a mortified Neville.
When Harry's vision finally cleared, he saw Crabbe and Goyle grinning stupidly from their usual places flanking two steps behind Malfoy.
Harry would have struck himself out of sheer self-loathing. He and Ron had fallen for Malfoy's stupid little trap.
Malfoy was distracting in the middle, drawing their attention towards him while Crabbe and Goyle loomed in the shadows of the pillars on the sides of the hallway until Malfoy gave the cue. Then they miraculously preformed successful disarming spells, and taking out Ron and Harry out of skill or dumb luck. Harry believed the latter.
"Now where will your little Mudblood girlfriend be, Potter? I'd like to have the whole little Potter fan club before I hang you from the ceiling like the ugliest Christmas baubles I've ever seen." Malfoy said haughtily.
"Expeliarmus!" shouted a female voice from the entranceway. Goyle was shot backwards as if hit by a battering ram and his wand flew into the air. Before Goyle's wand could even clatter to the floor, another spell shot from the same direction the first one did and with a blinding flash of ruby light, Crabbe was sprawled out on the stone floor, unconscious.
Harry blearily looked over to the direction where the exquisitely executed spells came from, expecting to find a furious McGonagall with a smug Hermione next to her. What Harry did not expect to see was a triumphant Hermione with her wand pointed precisely at Malfoy's chest and with her mouth open, a second away from firing another spell.
Malfoy looked coldly furious, but his silvery eyes glinted with fear. No one could blame him, Hermione was scary enough without a wand, but considering that she was the best spell-weaver in their year, and probably in all of Hogwarts, she was an extremely foreboding foe.
Malfoy and Hermione shouted spells at the exact same time. Hermione was a truly remarkable witch, but Malfoy was no novice either. Malfoy's spell was a vibrant purple and had a flame-like behavior, while Hermione's was a brilliant orange and behaved like a bolt of lightning. Hermione ducked behind a pillar while Malfoy dropped to the ground.
The spells whizzed past each other and collided into walls with a bone rattling boom. Hermione knew that someone was bound to hear the ruckus and knew that a teacher would appear at any moment. She would get into loads of trouble for dueling with another student, and get at least a week's worth of detention and loose a staggering amount of points for the Gryffindor House.
Hermione knew that she had to be the one to find a teacher, that way she would get into much less trouble, if none at all. She would not be caught red-handed and could explain her side of the story. McGonagall was much more likely to believe her over Malfoy, anyways.
She decided that she would fire one final spell at Malfoy, hopefully stalling him long enough so that she could get a good head's start. She would run towards McGonagall and hope to Godric that Filch or Ms. Norris wasn't around. That way, Gryffindor House wouldn't lose any points, Hermione wouldn't get any foul marks on her record, and Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle would get what they deserved. If she was lucky, they might even be expelled.
Malfoy stood up and took cover behind another pillar, a stone's throw away from where Hermione was concealed. Hermione peered around the edge of the pillar.
A jet of sapphire blue flame grazed her cheek, leaving a burnt furrow on her cheek. Hermione inhaled sharply in pain. She blindly pointed her wand around the pillar and shot a spell towards Malfoy.
Hermione heard the sound of a spell ricocheting and a pained grunt. She hoped that by some stroke of luck, she had somehow hit Malfoy. It wouldn't keep him unconscious for long, but long enough to find McGonagall and bring her back to dole out punishments.
Hermione learned from the last time that peering around the edge of the column was a bad idea, so she transfigured one of her books into a small, handheld mirror flawlessly. She positioned the mirror so that by angling the mirror correctly, she could gaze shamelessly at the pillar where Malfoy was taking cover.
Draco now was gazing at Hermione's hiding spot, wand at ready, so that if she was to turn, he would nab her instantly with a nasty hex.
She silently wondered who she had hit with her spell than, since it had apparently not harmed Malfoy. She tilted the mirror and would have beaten her head against the pillar in frustration had it not been for the tense situation she was in. Draco had warded off the spell, unknowingly causing it to bounce off of his shield charm and hit Harry, who was helplessly levitating in the air. Harry was now truly unconscious, and would be for a good five to ten minutes.
Hermione took a deep breath and randomly shot another spell towards Malfoy, then ran as fast as her legs could carry her down the corridor, right next to the columns in case she needed cover.
Her thick curly hair flew behind her like tongues of brunette fire. She heard Malfoy's pursuing footsteps and his shouts of curses and insults. A rainbow of vibrant hexes and curses flew past her, some closer than other. She had to hand it to Malfoy, as much as she loathed him; he sure knew quite the variety of spells. He was even decent with a shield charm, and that was magic quite beyond the average third year student's capabilities.
She reached the large scarlet doors with the polished brass knobs, but didn't know if she could remain stationary to open the door and still avid being hexed into oblivion by Malfoy.
She shot a trip jinx behind her and heard Malfoy collapse on the floor, muttering murderous wizarding profanities under his breath. Hermione took this opportunity to prop open the doors with a spell that she had learned from A Guide to Common but Useful Household Spells.
Hermione dove behind the now open large door and her brain whirled a top speed, thinking of a decent plan on how to proceed.
Malfoy had now gotten to his feet and had ran into the threshold of the large, heavily decorated doorway.
Hermione had a half-baked plan forming in her mind, but it would have to do. Hermione sprung out from behind the door like a cat and pounced on Malfoy, taking him by complete shock. She would have laughed at the look of utter and complete surprise on his face, but it had disappeared in an instant. His face was marred by a cruel sneer once more.
His wand was knocked far down the corridor in the process, and Hermione was actually quite surprised at the success of her poorly thought through plan.
"Get off me you filthy, disgusting little Mud…" Draco was cut off in the middle of his vile insult when Hermione silenced him with a quick spell. His mouth as moving furiously, mouthing things that were extremely vulgar, but not a sound escaped his lips.
"Now, you're coming with me to McGonagall's office and you will explain what you did to Harry, Ron, Neville and me." Hermione said with a genuine victorious smile on her face. She held her wand point to Malfoy's neck. He glared at her with cold, steely gray eyes. They stared at each other, silvery gray eyes into mahogany brown ones.
Suddenly, she felt that as if someone else was controlling her movements. She had read about Imperious curses briefly in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, but it didn't get detailed at all into describing how the curse felt, only what it did. Was she being Imperioused?
Hermione wildly glanced upwards and audibly shrieked in a mixture of anger and disgust. Above herself and Malfoy in the threshold of the doorway was a particularly large clump of mistletoe.
In the Muggle world, it was simply a tradition to kiss whoever of opposite gender was caught beneath the mistletoe with you, but you were not normally forced to do it against your own will. However, in the Wizarding world, mistletoe was almost always jinxed to force the two unfortunate people of opposite gender beneath the it to share a good and proper kiss. She had read it in One-Hundred and Five Muggle Traditions in the Wizarding World.
She remembered, as clear as crystal, the reason that no one took this hallway in December; it was because of the Jinxed mistletoe that decorated the hallway. No student in their right mind wanted to snog a random person who happened to cross the threshold of the door at the same time that you did. It was a particular nightmare if a whole unsuspecting group crossed the threshold at the same time.
Hermione, Ron, and Harry had avoided this corridor all month to avoid the jinxed mistletoe, but tonight was particularly tense, and they had forgotten all about it. She didn't even notice it on the way in because he had previously crossed the threshold alone.
Now, she was stuck under the mistletoe with a silenced Draco Malfoy, who had looked up to see what Hemione had shrieked about. His stormy gray eyes widened as the realization dawned upon him. They would have to kiss.
Hermione tried to pull away as the jinx on the mistletoe forced them to lean closer to each other, but it was futile. Malfoy helplessly tried to buck his head back and away from Hermione, but he couldn't move backwards at all.
As they leaned ever closer, Hermione couldn't help but notice how his white blond hair was kind of messy and out of place from their fight instead of its usual slicked back appearance. Hermione liked it better that way; the messy look made him look a lot more… attractive. Hermione mentally scolded herself. How dare she look at the enemy in such a way?
Draco's eyes stared at Hermione, loathing her. It was her fault that this was happening. If she, Wonderboy, and the Weasel hadn't interfered in the corridor, none of this would have happened.
Draco tried to ignore the fact that Hermione's eyes were quite a lovely shade of chestnut and she had a fine, strawberry and vanilla scent around her that made him want to fall into a happy, dreamless sleep. He actually sort of liked the way her hair was curly and out of control, it was wild and exciting. It made his heart beat a little faster. Draco furiously shoved those traitorous thoughts deep into his consciousness.
The mistletoe's jinx refused to let them stall any longer and before either one of them could do anything else, their lips met. Hermione's eyes widened in horror. This was treason to the Gryffindor House! Speaking civilly to a Slytherin was unheard of and against the unspoken Gryffindor code of conduct. Snogging a Slytherin would earn her the life of an outcast, even if a spell was forcing her to kiss him. This was…at this point, Hermione's brain stopped functioning logically and all reason was abandoned. Her eyes blinked once, then twice, then shut completely.
She knew it was wrong but if it was, how could it feel so right? The feeling of his soft lips pressed against her own sent pleasurable shivers down her spine and a pleasing tingle coursed through every cell in her body. Never had she felt so wonderful, marvelous and so free…
Draco too was deprived of all reason. By kissing her he was betraying his House, his bloodline, and his very family. She was a Mudblood, he shouldn't even be touching her, let alone kissing her. Mudbloods were inferior, creatures of dirt, unworthy to glance upon a real pure-blooded wizard like himself. She was…Really amazing at kissing. His eyes drifted shut. Her sweet, but not overpowering scent of vanilla and freshly picked strawberries wafted over him and put him in a trancelike state. He had always made fun of her unruly hair, but he never knew that it was so soft. He hadn't realized that his hands had brushed her hair away from her face. Her skin was so smooth…
He wrapped his arms around her small waist. Her petite hands were in his silky blond hair. They tilted their heads to get a better angle when the jinx was fulfilled. They were free to move however they pleased.
They pulled each other closer for a moment longer; kissing with a gradual passion that gained momentum with every second that passed.
The sound of boots walking down a corridor caused Hermione to open her eyes. She saw Draco's face, and had never seen such a peaceful, caring look on his face before. She noticed his aristocratic features; the high cheekbones and the flawless, slightly upturned nose. He was actually very striking, when a loathsome sneer marred his marvelous features. She liked him better this way.
The loud footsteps approached, getting louder and more irritating.
Draco felt like he was in heavan, this is the most wonderful that he had ever felt in his entire life. The loud footsteps echoing through the hallway was disrupting it though. He opened his eyes and met Hermione's big brown eyes.
She was much more beautiful than he had ever given her credit before in the past. Then, reality came crashing down upon them like a cold bucket of water being dumped on their heads.
They flew apart as if blasted apart by a jinx.
Draco shuddered. What had he been doing? Kissing a Mudblood. The thing that terrified him the most was that he had actually enjoyed it, loved it even. No one could ever know about this. He would be shunned, disinherited by his family, probably even killed for treason to all the purebloods. He was no better than the Weasleys. He was now a blood traitor, like them, and if his father ever found out, he would be even poorer than them, and that was saying something.
Hermione, stumbled backwards, unable to comprehend what she had just done. She had kissed a Slytherin. She wasn't worthy to be a Gryffindor. She would be the most hated Gryffindor in all living record of the Gryffindor House. She betrayed her House, but the thing that tore her up the most is that she had betrayed her friends. She had passionately kissed Draco Malfoy who had repeatedly tried to ruin their lives and had partially succeeded. He made fun of Ron's family and Harry's lack of a family. But most of all, he had tormented her since the day that she arrived on the Hogwarts Express on that very first day. He had tormented her and her friends every second of every day, and yet she had adored every moment of kissing Draco, and that is what killed her the most.
Hermione and Draco looked at each other, not with disgust, but with pure and utter shock of what had just transpired between them. Something passed between them at that moment. It was an unspoken oath. No one would know. They would never tell a single living soul as long as they lived that they had made out with the enemy… and loved every second of it. No one could know. The footsteps seemed so close, that it was alarming.
They glanced at each other fearfully; the last thing that they needed was to be caught at the scene of the crime with bruised lips. Then their story would be out for sure.
They sprinted down the hall together, something that would only happen once because of the circumstances.
Draco didn't even bother with lifting Crabbe and Goyle. With a wave of his wand, the limp forms of Crabbe and Goyle were floating above the ground. Hermione looked helplessly at Neville, Harry and Ron. Without shooting another glance in Hermione's direction, Draco waved his wand, muttering the countercurse as quietly as possible. Harry and Ron fell to the floor.
Hermione was momentarily stunned stiff by Draco's fleeting act of kindness towards her. She stared at him. He looked at her one final time. No one can know. He said with a clear look. With that, he tapped a panel on the wall that Hermione would have never noticed. A steep spiraling stone stairwell appeared. Draco disappeared without a backwards glance, with the hulking forms of Crabbe and Goyle floating like ugly balloons behind him.
The panel slid shut behind him. Hermione followed Draco's plan of action and levitated Neville, Ron and Harry with a quiet, "Wingardium Leviosa!" She briskly walked to the Gryffindor common room, with Ron and Harry floating behind.
She reached the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Chocolate Gumdrops." Hermione barked at the dozing Fat Lady.
"Yes, yes, no need to be snappy with me!" The Fat Lady mumbled sleepily as the entrance swung open. Hermione instantly closed it behind her. She walked up the stairs to Neville, Harry and Ron's dormitory. She quickly used her wand to guide them onto their beds. She was lucky that Dean and Seamus were away for the Holidays, or she would be bombarded with nosy questions.
Harry looked up at her blearily. Neville and Ron had drifted into deep slumber.
"What happened? I had the weirdest dream… Crabbe… Goyle… Malfoy… you were dueling Malfoy!" Harry said sleepily. "Wait, what are you doing here, Hermione? This is the boy's dormitory!"
"You were shouting in your sleep again. I came up to see if you were alright. It was just a dream Harry. We went to the feast, came back here, and we all went to bed early. It was just a dream." Hermione said soothingly.
"Just a dream, then…" Harry said softly. His head fell to his pillow and he was asleep, with his glasses still on his face. With a wave of her wand, Harry's glasses eased themselves off of his face and landed neatly on his bedside table.
Hermione felt bad for lying to her best friends about what had happened, but firmly told herself, No one could know.
Several floors below, in the Slytherin common room, Draco was seated in a dark green armchair, gazing intently into the fire.
Crabbe and Goyle were piled unceremoniously on the large leather sofa near Draco's armchair.
Suddenly, Goyle stirred.
"Did... did we get Potter, Weasley, Longbottom and the little Mudblood?" Goyle mumbled stupidly.
"What are you talking about, you blundering idiot? We've been here ever since the stupid feast. You too ate too much food and fell asleep, you blithering idiot." Malfoy said in a flat tone, not taking his eyes off the fire.
"Oh. Okay. Just… dream." Goyle rumbled. With a great snore, he was once again asleep. Malfoy stared almost unblinkingly into the flames, the tendrils of light reflecting wildly in his silver eyes.
He couldn't believe that he had snogged Granger… and deep down, he didn't regret it one bit. He was dying to know what was really going on with the whole ordeal, but he could think about it no longer, o someone could find out. Not everyone was as stupid as Crabbe and Goyle. Someone knew that there was a fight of some sort in the hallway that night. They had produced the footsteps that had woken himself and Granger out of their kissing trance.
He just had to let it go, because no one could know. All of this trouble because of a little bit of jinxed mistletoe. Draco thought in begrudging awe.
Here's a late Christmas present to you all. Could you maybe give me a present in return by reviewing? Come on! It's seriously, my birthday today!